The girl launched her boat and seemed to be very careful not to touch the water. I couldn't figure out what she was afraid of. Did she think she was going to melt or something? I'd been in the water with Joel dozens of times, and nothing had happened. Was she just being cautious? Then again, we had never been deeper than four feet. I didn't like the inability to see my feet. It was unnerving, and a Joel hadn't contested it. In the games, you never know what they've laid out for you, any traps waiting to be sprung. For all I knew, there was a fifty foot sea serpent in there.

"If she gets over here, I'm not sure what's going to happen", Joel said from next to me.

"I know. She's good, and even though there are two of us to her one, I doubt she'll go down without a fight"

"Hey, I have an idea", He picked up some really large rocks and piled them up next to himself. Then, he took off his shirt and made a sort of sling and began flinging rocks at her. Now, there was no way I was taking mine off. I still wanted to retain some level of dignity, so I started finding rocks and adding them to the pile.

He wasn't having much luck with hitting her. Or the boat. So I decided it was time for some motivation.

"Come on! My four year old sister can throw better than you!"

He glanced sideways at me, "You have a four year old sister?"

"Well, no, but if I did, she would have much better aim than that crap. I mean come on!", I gestured in the direction of his most recent shot, "That had to be at least thirty feet away!"

"You wanna try?" He offered me the shirt.

"Eww, I'm not touching that sweaty thing"

"Fine. Use yours. I have no objection", he looked pointedly at my chest.

I smacked his arm.

"Ow! What was that for?" He rubbed his arm.

"Really? You're telling me, after everything you've been through, that hurt?"

He nodded and stuck his lip out, pouting, "Kiss it and make it better?"

I rolled my eyes, "Hit her and we'll talk"

Of course, after that, the rocks started getting closer and closer to her, until one finally went through the center of her boat. She shrieked in rage and...was that fear? She scrambled frantically around her sinking boat, trying desperately to plug the hole with something.

I forced a sigh, "Alright, I guess I-" But I was cut off as he placed his lips over mine. We kissed for a minute before I pulled away reluctantly, "Okay, well, w-we should really...um...kill her before we get too...distracted..."

He smiled, "Only if you promise"

I raised an eyebrow, "I make no guarantees"

After many, many more unsuccessful tries at hitting her boat, he finally knocked over her sail. She literally screamed as though in pain and started bawling. still, she started shoving the sail into the hole. She refused to sink. Joel, unfortunately for her, was getting the hang of this, and a rock made another rather large hole in the center. She screamed and cried, and suddenly I noticed something. Coming closer and closer to her were theses shadows in the water. There were two of them and they were massive. Like, I didn't doubt that twenty of her would fit into one shadow.

As her makeshift boat went lower and lower, she grabbed onto the mast, which was the only thing still floating. She clung to it for dear life and tried to pull herself up onto it. She made it, but one of the shadows was getting closer and closer. She decided to make a run for it and dove off. She made it about thirty feet toward us, so she was close enough that we could see her face, full of fear. Suddenly, beneath her, one of the shadows appeared, then water started draining down, then something massive came up out of the water around her, the head of what looked like a shark on serious steroids. The mouth was huge. She screamed bloody murder as the jaws closed around her and the shark sank back down into the murky water.

It took me a minute to realize that my mouth was hanging open in shock. I had seen sharks before, but nothing that large. I couldn't believe my eyes. There was no way I was getting in that water again. Although, the size did explain why we had been safe in the shallower water. The shark, whose head was easily ten feet high, wouldn't have fit that close to the shore. It would have gotten stuck even further out than that. I wondered how she had known what was in the water before. Oh well, that was one secret she would take with her to her watery grave, along with her name, which I still didn't know. But that was a pretty bad way to go, eaten by one of the Capitol's mutts, or mutations, that they had left over from the rebellion.

"So", Joel broke the silence.

"So"

"That was almost...anti-climactic"

I whirled to look him in the eye, "You call that anticlimactic? What the hell did you just see? I'm pretty sure that I am not alone when I say that getting eaten by a giant shark is so not anti-climactic"

"I don't know, I guess I was just anticipating her coming over here and chopping my arm off or something. And then she's just gone. She didn't even go out fighting."

"Wouldn't you be paralyzed with fear if a shark of massive proportions was trying to eat you?" I looked at him, and remembered who I was talking to, "Nevermind, I'm not sure you have enough self-preservation to comprehend such a thing"

"Whatever. So, what do you want to do? Should we go hunting?"

"I think that was enough for today. We can go tomorrow."

"Sure. Anything you want" He grinned in his adorable way and wrapped his arms around my waist, falling back into the sand. I laughed and kissed him. I wanted to draw out our time left as long as possible, even if it was only a few days. Every second counted. He seemed just as happy to kiss me, and we stayed like that for a while. It was sweet, and gentle, until suddenly his lips crushed against mine, hard, becoming more urgent, and he flipped us so that he was on top of me.

Everything started feeling really hot, and I noticed something pressed against my abdomen that I wasn't really sure what to think of, so I pushed him back. He didn't respond at first, so I pushed a little harder. All that did was cause him to grunt, and pin my hands next to my head. Okay, that did it. I wrapped my legs around his waist, flipped our positions, and twisted away.

Then, I hopped up, breathing a bit heavily, "Damn, you don't take a hint, do you?"

"Neither do you, clearly"

"Hey, if I want you to stop, you stop"

"It's not like it's a huge deal"

"Um, yeah, it kinda is. Since I've never...and besides, we're on national television. Everyone is watching. My dad is watching. He's very...dangerous"

He smiled sadly, "Not like I'll be around long enough for him to do anything. I won't even meet him"

"Stop. Stop saying that. Please." I shut my eyes, shaking my head. I so did not want to hear this.

"Katari, you know I'm not leaving. You need to accept that", he said gently as he stood up and tried to put his arms around me.

I pushed away, "No! No, I don't. I won't! I-I don't have to do anything! And you don't know that! You don't know that it couldn't be you leaving and me dying", I was shouting at him.

"Yes, I do. I won't kill you, and I won't let anyone else hurt you", He gave me a strange look, "Not even you", he reached up and wiped something off of my face. I tear, I realized. I was crying. I was crying. Me.

"God, I am so pathetic. I can't believe I'm crying. Are you happy now?" I yelled at him, "I'm crying. I don't believe this. You have reduced me to tears. I haven't cried since...since I was twelve", I said in a small voice, looking him in the eye. I felt terrible. I hadn't cried since my torture session.

"Oh, Katari, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry", He really meant it. He pulled me into his arms and held me there, despite my attempts to get away. I didn't need this, to be weaker than I already was.

He chuckled, "Katari, you aren't going to win this one. I promise I'm stronger than you"

He slowly sat down, pulling me with him, still holding me against his chest. I can't remember how long we stayed like that, but I eventually calmed down. He ran his fingers through my horribly tangled hair and whispered in my ear and stroked my face. I didn't understand any of this, how any of it could be happening, why he cared so much, and even more, why I cared. It was so strange to me.

Suddenly, I made a decision. I looked up at him, knowing I probably looked horrible. And I knew he didn't care. I pressed my lips to his, "I was thinking...I mean, I decided, I don't care...about being on television...or my dad right now...and I just-" He cut me off, pressing his finger to my lips to silence me.

"You're sure?"

"Yeah. I mean, if you still want to..." My cheeks were burning, "I understand if you don't. I still don't know why you tolerate me...or even like-" Again, he cut me off.

"I don't like you", when I started to pull away, feeling tears prick my eyes, he pulled me back, "No, no, not what I meant. Would you let me finish? I was going to say that I love you."

"Oh"

"Yeah"

He smiled, and his lips were on mine again, and for once I didn't care what anyone else thought, I didn't even think about them. I just gave in to Joel and gave myself to him completely.